No Good
No Good is the debut studio album by American singer Fergie. It was released on January 26, 2018 through Retrofuture Records and the Warner Music Group as her first solo album since the break from her band The Black Eyed Peas. The album was recorded after the hiatus from The Black Eyed Peas' in 2012, and the songs were written throughout the last five years that preceded its release. While developing the album, Fergie wanted to create a fun album that would show her different sides and make fun for her to listen, as well for the listener. By doing so, the album experiments with different music genres, including pop, hip hop, R&B, dance, trap and soul. Lyrically, No Good has themes about fame, female empowerment, fun, love and critics. Upon its release, No Good received mixed reviews from music critics, with many praising its uniqueness, calling it one of the most mainstream and passionated albums of 2018, but some criticized the album's lyrical content, it dated sound and believed the material was not strong enough for her voice. It became a commercial success, reaching number one on the US Billboard 200, remaining in the top 5 for over five weeks, while also topping the UK Album Charts (OCC), the Australian Albums Chart (ARIA), Brazilian Album Charts (Top Álbuns Brasil), Canadian Albums Chart, French Albums (SNEP), German Albums (Offizielle Top 100), and becoming a worldwide success, breaking the records on highest week sales from 2018, record taken a few weeks later by Ariana Grande. The album produced, for now, three top five singles, "Look At Me", "M.I.L.F. $", the latter peaked at #1 in the Billboard Hot 100 for a week, while topping the UK Official Charts for three weeks in a row, and "It Ain't Easy". Background After concluding two worldwide tours with The Black Eyed Peas in support of The E.N.D. (2009) and The Beginning (2010) from 2009 to 2011, Fergie decided to take a break from the group to concentrate on her private life, and soon on her solo career, mentioning that she had begun writing on her own for her first studio album. Production Fergie desired to have creative control over the album, co-writting 8 of 13 songs. She stated: "Becoming a mom and getting pregnant reset me. I just got on my game. I've never taken on this much responsibility and I kept wanting to make it better and better. I wanted to strive for greatness," adding, "You have to at a certain point just let go and say, 'This song is done.'" That first resulted in "Look At Me", a europop song produced by Absolute with influences from jazz and britpop, released in December 15, 2017. Title and artwork The album's title 'No Good' is one of the songs from the tracklist, picked as the title of the album due to the singer identification with the song. "I was always the misfit in the school, the different one, and i did caused a lot of trouble during my young and young adult years, so i always heard that i was always 'up to no good', so i got into this", said Fergie, during an interview in mid-Janury 2018. Singles "Look At Me" was released as the first single off the album, released in December 15, 2017. It reached #4 in the Billboard Hot 100 and #2 at the UK Official Charts. The reception for "Look at Me" was mostly positive: BBC News described the song as "undeniably catchy", AllMusic deemed the song "upbeat", "self-conscious", and "silly, Billboard called the song "funky, shady and Fergie's first step to stardom". "TENS" was released as a promotional and pre-order single from the album; it features ballroom MC Jack Mizrahi, and it was picked as a promo single as a 'homage to the LGBTQ community and the ballroom culture'. "M.I.L.F. $" was chosen as the second single from the album, released in January 19, 2018. Produced by Polow Da Don, the song is a hip-hop trap song with a feminist empowerment content, inspired by Fergie experiences after pregnancy. The song was the first single from Fergie's solo career to top the charts: "M.I.L.F. $" peaked at #1 for one week in the Billboard Hot 100, Canadian Hot 100, French's SNEP, Germany's Official Charts and Brazilian Hot 100, and for three consecutive weeks at the UK Official Charts. "It Ain't Easy" was the third single off the album, before Fergie taking a four months hiatus due to the controversy with Miranda Sings. The ballad was a fan favorite instantly and also acclaimed critically, which made the track charts in some countries due when the album was released, and Fergie perform the song during the massive promotion of the album. Later, on its on promotion as a single, the song peaked at #3 at the Billboard Hot 100, its highest position, while #11 was the lowest, peaking in France, being covered by many artists such as Shawn Mendes. Track listing Charts Release history Category:Albums Category:2018 releases Category:Retrofuture Catalog